PANJIM: The Deputy Chief Minister and Urban Development Minister of Goa, Francis D'Souza said that given the geographical size of Goa, it should be treated as one unit and the State should have only one master plan.

"I met with Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Babul Supriyo and apprised him about the needs of Goa and said that Goa was too small a State and it should be considered as one unit rather than planning Panjim as a smart city. Goa has a forest cover of 38 per cent in a land mass of about 105 kilometers by 84 kilometers with plenty of water bodies. Land is scares and planning must be done keeping all these challenges in mind," said the Deputy Chief Minister, Francis D'Souza who was also the chief guest at a seminar hosted by Neilsoft group.

He added that Goans are feeling threatened demographically as the population ratio of migrants to the original Goans are 40: 60 and the population growth of original Goans is almost close to nil. "We must understand that we are not threatened but we should prepare ourselves to get more connected with the rest of India. We have to innovate, protect our environment and forest cover and overcome barriers of scarce land by planning vertically," said Mr. D'Souza.

He touched upon the growing population of vehicles in Goa and said that "Goa has about 11 lakh vehicles (6.5 lakh two wheelers) in a population of 15 lakh.
This ratio is quite substantial which means parking of vehicles which is a problem today will accentuate further if plans are not made with futuristic thoughts. We cannot allow the vagaries of market to dictate the real estate industries," added Mr. Dsouza.

Noted businessman of Goa and Director of Smart link Network Systems, Nitin Kunkolienker laid stress on innovation, adaptation of ever-growing technology. "It's time that all builders and real estate agencies must come together to help fund projects which can innovate new ideas, designs etc. which will eventually cut down time and money in the real estate sector. The smartness is to link different available services for the benefit of the people and not work in islands. It is time to have new innovations and to create and add value to real estate business."

Jaganath 'Desh' Prabhudesai, President of the Goa unit of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (Credai) while speaking in the seminar said that 95 per cent of the housing is done by private builders and hence the responsibility on private builders to shape the look and feel of the city is extremely high.

Meanwhile, Neilsoft Ltd, the Pune - based Multi-National design, engineering services and solutions company commenced its operation in Goa on Tuesday January 19 and in the next 12 months, the company plans to increase its strength.

The intent to establish an office in Goa is to provide high value integrated design consulting services to local market through its subsidiary Ingsophy (specialist engineering consultancy). Neilsoft brings two decades of international experience, domain knowledge, advanced design technologies and processes. Ingsophy is a specialist comprehensive engineering design consultancy.

Vaibhav Aneja, Vice President of Neilsoft said "We are pleased to be in Goa and our initial experiences have been very positive. Goa Infrastructure development plans and smart city initiative convinced us to scale up our presence in Goa. Our design and engineering team in Goa will service customers in tourism, construction, process and manufacturing segments. Neilsoft will differentiate itself from other players by applying superior concepts, technology, expertise and methodology to its work.